Process for increasing sugar recovery



Patented Mar. 23, 1926.

units.-

RAFAEL VAGI-IIEB, or Baron ROUGE, Louisiana rnocnss .FOR iitcnnasins snean RECOVERY.

' Application filed May 12, 1925. Serial rib. 29,750.

7 '0 all whom it may con (1cm Be it known that I, RAFAEL' VACHIER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Ba ton Rouge, in the parish of East Baton Rouge and State of Louisiana, have invented .certainnew and useful Improvements in Processes for Increasing Sugar Recovery;

.' and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same. Y i

The present invention relates to a process of manufacturing cane sugar, and has for anobject to recovera greater percentage otthc sugar during the process, and wherein is abolished the usual filter-press station con-' sidered essential.

Another object oftheinvention is to pro.-

vide a process for desugarizii'ig the mud,

which is produced by any of the 'well established processes of defecation or clarification in sugar manufacture in cane sugar factories and wherein no additional amount of water is used than is consumed in the present practice.

Another object is to bring the mud to the lowest possible sucrose content previous to its coming into contact with the water, which isto finally exhaust it, so that the mud after this final treatment is completely exhausted and may be sent to the fields as fertilizer.

Briefly stated, the improved process embodies the taking of; the thin-juices from each one of the milling units or"stages,' separating them andthenscreening, adding lime to them separately, heat ng them and iinally' clarifying each separate product, so as to have a series of juices decreasing in density and sucrose content-.j The decanted mud ctrom each of the previous clarifiers is admixed with the inflowing juice of the subsequent clarifier, which juice is lower in sugar content than the liquid element ot the mud. The mud decanted from the first clarifier passes through the second and third claritiers, which contain juices of interior densities and sugar content andthe mud is finally passed through a de-sugarizer where the partially exhausted mud is brought into contact with the water intended for maceration on the last one or more stages of the milling process. Of course the mud may be passed in series through any number of stages of the milling process according to the size of the mill and the clear juices treat the alert ing to this invention.

tiers may be sent directly therefrom to the evaporators, or they may be used as maceration in "front of some of the mills: lVith the foregoing and other ob ects in view. the invention will be more fully described hereinafter, and will be more partic-;

ularly pointed out in the claims appended hereto.

In the drawing the single View shows, diagrammatically, a tour stage millingplant constructed to carry out the process accord- .Hcrerring to thedrawing, 10'designates a pair of crusher rolls and from whichthe cane is passed to the first mill 11. The thin juices extracted inthefirst mill are carried downwardly through a screen12 to a heater 13 -and. a quantity of lime is added to the" thin juices as they enter the heater. The

limed thin juicesare then conducted to the clarifier 14 where theinixtureis separated intoa clearjuice which is'carried off through a pipe 15' teen evaporator-or the like as diagrammatically shown. The hand sepae rated in the clarifier is conductedthrough V pipe 16 to the heaterl'? of the second mill. or

stage in the" process. The second mill'lS delivers the thin juice to its screen 19 and thence to the heater 17, a quantity of lime being added to this thin juice from the second mill. The mud from thepipe ;16 or the 7 first stage is here admixed with the second 1 thin juice and lime, is heated an'd then conducted tothe second clarifier 19. 'This'seo. end admixture is separated into a clear juice,

which is carried cit through a pipe 20 to an evaporator or the like, and the 'mud which is carried 'oitjthrough'the pipex2l to the heater 22 of the third mill 23. I

In a similar manner the third mill has a screen 24 through which the thirdv thin juiceis strained, after which it is limed. and conducted to the heater 22, and finally tothc third clarifier 25. The clear juice from the third clariiier 25 is conducted through pipe 26 and delivered as maceration in front of the second mill 18, although this is optional. The mud from the third clarifier 25 is conducted through pipe 26 to a de-sugarizer 27 used for the final extraction of the sucrose content from the mud. The tourthmill' or stage 28 de-liversits thin juicethrough the screen 29 to a pipe 30 for conducting this last thin ju ce as maceration to a point in *content by the water of maceration. and

four stage mill as any number of stages may be employed.

The de-sugarizer 27 receives the mud from the third clarifier 25 and receives a quantity of lime for admixture therewith and with maceration water from pipe 81'. The decanted and exhausted mud from the de-' sugarizer 27 is carried off through pipe 32 and is practically completely de-sugarized viates the necessity of applying an additional, or extra amount of water as maceration in front of thevarious stages or mills during the process.

It will be seen that the only water added is in the de-sugarizer and that by this process the mud is consecutively reduced in sucrose content throughout the various stages of the mill, and is finally and practically completely exhausted, of its sugar lime, which is added in the. de-sugarizer or in the'last stage/of theprocess; Even from the de-sugarizer, the. clear sweet Water is collected and made use of as maceration, so

' that there is practically no waste use of the Water which is used during any stage of the process.

It is obvious that various changes and modifications may be made in the details of the process and structural arrangements of the above specifically described app'a rat-us for practicing the process, without de parting from the spirit of this invention, all

of such changes and modifications being 7 restricted only by the scope of the following claims.

\Vhat is claimed is .1. That process for desugarizing the partially exhausted mud obtained as the residue in the sugar recovery process and without the necessity for the filtering operation, which consists in subjecting the partially exhausted mud to fresh water and a quantity of lime sufficient to produce coagulation and extract the sugar content of the mud, thereby producing a clear sweet water as maceration water for use in the milling process and a substantially desugarized mud.

2. That process for recovering sugar from cane without the necessity for filtering operation, which consists in separately extracting thin juices from different stages of a mill, separately treating said thin juices to clarify the same, conducting the mud in series through the clarifying stages to consecutively decrease the sucrose content of'the mud, treating the partially exhausted mudfrom the last clarifying stage with fresh Water and lime to completely decant and-'exhaust the mud and to producea clear sweet water of maceration, carrying off the'finally decanted: and exhausted mud, and returning the clear sweet water of maceration back through thestages of the mill.

3. That process for recovering sugar-from cane without the necessity for filter1ngoper- V atlon, which cons sts-.111separatelyextract ing thin juices from different stages of a mill, separately treating. sa d thin uices to clarify the same, conducting the mud in series through the clarifying stages to con,- secutively decreasethesucrose content of the mud, and to produce a clear juice as maceration, conducting the clear juice from the clarifier of onemilling stage back to the previous stage of the mill as maceration Water, treating the partially exhausted mudfrom the last clarifying stage with fresh Water and'lime to completely decent and exhaust the mud and toproduce a clear sweet Water of maceratiom carrying offthe finally decanted: and exhausted mud, and'returning the clear sWeet Water of maceration back throughv the stages of the mill, 1

AFAEL V C IER, 

